Kamen Rider Phantom Knight
by soultaker78
Summary: AU fusion with Kamen Rider Ryuki. A random encounter leads to Danny joining a war between twelve armored warriors that has broken out in Amity Park. Danny sets out to stop the war but is met with adversity at almost every turn. Will he succeed?
1. Chapter 1

Danny was ecstatic. School had gotten out for the summer a few weeks ago. He had turned 16 a week ago and was cruising around town on the motorcycle his parents had gotten him for his birthday. It wasn't very extravagant, but Danny greatly enjoyed it for the mobility he now had.

He was passing by a parking garage when he saw something unbelievable. A man came shooting out of a window (without breaking it) and landed violently on the ground. Danny pulled over and went to see if he could help him.

The mysterious man was on his back and looked to be in a great deal of pain. He was wearing a strange costume of some kind. It was black and padded on the chest like it was supposed to be some kind of armor. On the right arm was a white, oval object with two eyes and a mouth on the front.

_Weird, _Danny thought then looked over the rest of the armor. There was a gauntlet on the right arm and shin guards on the legs, all with white trims. There was a silver belt around his waist with a black, rectangular object in the center. There was a gold symbol on the object that looked like a cartoon ghost. Danny looked at the face and saw two, large green eyes that almost seemed to glow. Around the eyes, forehead and above was a white metal object with a round curve.

The man groaned in pain, reached for the object on his belt and took it out. A black ring of energy appeared around his waist, split into two rings that traveled across his body, removing the armor. When the armor was gone, Danny saw someone he knew.

"Jon," Danny said. Jon was a motorcycle mechanic Danny's dad had been paying to teach him how to do basic maintenance on his own bike.

"Danny," Jon said as he handed Danny the rectangular object. "You must….. stop… the war," Jon said through pained gasps and then his body went limp.

"Jon," Danny said in panic, getting no response. "Jon," Danny said louder while shaking him, still getting no response. Danny didn't know how to take a pulse and even if he did, he doubted he'd find one if he could.

Danny took the rectangular object Jon was so interested in. There was an open slit on the right side and what looked like cards inside. _That's odd, _he thought. The symbol he had seen earlier was no longer there. He looked at the window Jon had come from and saw another person in similar armor.

This person's armor was black with gold gauntlets, shin guards, chest plate and helmet. The chest plate was V-shaped, the shoulders and helmet had what looked like gold feathers on them.

There was a weird distortion around the window. Danny wasn't sure how, but he knew that this person wasn't on the other side of the window but somehow inside it. There was gold flash around him and he disappeared, leaving some golden energy feathers behind which soon faded.

"What the f#^k," Danny said out loud, his tolerance for weirdness having reached it's limit a while ago.

While he was wondering this, someone walked towards him. Danny recognized him as Tucker Foley, a nerdy teen Danny shared a few classes with.

"Jon," Tucker said as he knelt down and shook Jon's body. "You okay?"

"He's dead," Danny said.

"Shit," Tucker said as he placed his hand on his forehead and stood up. "This is not how it was supposed to go." Tucker took a quick look around his surroundings and it finally registered with him that Danny was there. "Oh, hey Danny. I didn't see you there. You're probably wondering what I'm doing here….."

"Not really," Danny interrupted and showed Tucker the object he got from Jon. "I'm more interested in what this is. Jon gave it to me before he….. you know," Danny looked sad briefly and then took a deep breath. "What the hell is this? What was with that strange armor Jon was wearing? Why did he come shooting out of a window? What war does he want me to stop?"

"Okay," Tucker said and motioned with his hands for Danny to calm down. "Five days ago, I found a similar object in my sock drawer," Tucker began as he held out an object of the same size and color as the one Jon had given Danny, except this one had a gold symbol of what looked like a gazelle's head.

"There was a note with it as well," Tucker continued. "Apparently, there are twelve of these things and they're called advent decks. People with have them can use them to become armored warriors called Kamen Riders. We're going to fight each other until only one is left. That person gets one wish for winning the Rider war."

"Which Jon wanted to stop," Danny said. "Why?"

"The rider war is basically a death match. Jon wanted to stop the war to keep the Riders from killing each other. It would also stop the monsters as well."

"What monsters?"

"The fighters don't just fight each other: there are monsters we're supposed to fight and if we kill enough of them, we get a power up. But a very big problem with that is that the monsters hunt down random people and eat them. So people who aren't Kamen Riders are dying as well."

"That's f#^ked up."

"That's what Jon thought too. The two of us met and he told me about his wanting to stop the war. I'd already encountered a few of the other Kamen Riders and they were real jerks and psychos. I wasn't interested in having to fight all of them so I agreed to help Jon stop the war. For all the good it did."

Tucker sighed in depression as he looked down on Jon's body. Danny decided to look around to see if anyone else noticed the two teens standing over a dead body. Danny looked at the window Jon had come out of earlier and saw something that made him very worried.

"Uh, Tucker," Danny said nervously as he shook Tucker's shoulder. "One of those monsters you mentioned earlier is looking right us."

"What," Tucker said as he looked at had Danny so spooked. Inside the window was what looked like a cartoon ghost that was slightly bigger than a person. It had a round body, no legs and two tiny nubs that were supposed to be arms. It also had a mouth and two black eyes. For whatever reason, it looked sad.

"Wait, you can see him when he's inside Mirror World?" Tucker asked.

"Of course I can see him," Danny said. "Wait, what's Mirror World?"

"It's where the Rider war takes place and the monsters come from," Tucker began. "It's like an exact replica of the real world, minus the people. Kamen Riders get there by jumping through mirrors and reflective surfaces."

"That's all fascinating, but what the hell are we going to do about him?" Danny asked as he pointed at the ghost monster.

"You don't have to worry about him," Tucker said. "That's Phantomas: he was Jon's partner."

"What do you mean Partner?" Danny asked.

"A Kamen Rider has to form a bond with a monster," Tucker explained. "Since you have his advent deck, Phantomas is probably hanging around you expecting you to bond with him."

"How do I do that?" Danny asked.

"Are you serious?" Tucker asked. "There's one thing I haven't gotten to yet: when your contract monster gets energy from a defeated monster, it works towards getting a power-up but it also serves as food for your contract monster. If you don't provide food for it after a while, it will turn on you for it's next meal. After everything you've learned, are you still thinking of joining the rider war?"

"Jon asked me to stop the war before he died," Danny began. "He wanted to stop the riders from killing each other and he deserved better than to die himself. Besides, if there are also monsters that are killing people at random, I want to do something about it."

Danny had heard about a number of mysterious disappearances that had happened in Amity Park recently. Taking into account what he just learned about the monsters and Mirror World, it looked like their attacks were behind the disappearances. He felt obliged to stop the attacks either by fighting the monsters directly or stopping the war, which might make them go away if they were a part of it.

Tucker could hear the conviction in Danny's voice and gave in. He sighed as he decided to tell Danny what he wanted to know. "Pull the contract card out of the deck," he instructed.

Danny pulled out a random card. There was a swirling white vortex on it. Above and below the vortex were the words 'CONTRACT' and 'CARD', respectively. "Now what?" Danny asked.

"Hold the Contract Card up in front of Phantomas," Tucker said.

"Now what?" Danny asked as he followed Tucker's instructions. Phantomas came out of the mirror and went towards Danny. There was a flash of light from the contract card and Phantomas disappeared. Danny looked at the contract card and saw that it had changed. There was a picture of Phantomas on it now along with a tag on top that identified it as such. Danny put the card back into the deck. He saw that the symbol that had been on the deck earlier had returned.

"Welcome to the Rider War, Kamen Rider Phantom Knight," Tucker said.

"I'm not planning to be a part of it for long," Danny said. "Any specific ideas about how to stop the war?"

"Jon tried to talk the other riders out killing each other but he didn't get anywhere with that," Tucker began. "We were trying something else with what's inside this parking garage but it went horribly wrong, as you've already figured out."

"What's inside this garage?" Danny asked. Before Tucker could answer, Danny heard some kind of chiming sound in his head. "I've got a better question: what was that just now?"

"That sound means there's a monster nearby who's going to turn some poor bastard into his lunch."

"We've got to stop it. How exactly do we do that?"

"Follow my lead," Tucker said as he stepped in front of the window Jon had shot out of earlier. He held his advent deck in front of the window and a silver belt appeared inside it. The belt came out of the window and put itself around Tucker's waist.

"Spear," Tucker cried out as he slid the advent deck into the belt's buckle. A brown ring of energy appeared around his waist, split in two and traveled across his body before disappearing.

Tucker was now wearing his own armor. It was black body suit with brown boots, shoulder pads, chest plate and fur trims. There were curved yellow horns on his shoulders and the sides of his helmet. There was a gold and black object on his right knee.

Danny held his own deck in front of the window. The belt appeared, came out of the window and put itself around Danny's waist. "Phantom Knight," he said and slid his deck into the buckle. A black ring of energy appeared around his waist, split in two and traveled across his body before disappearing. Danny was now wearing the same armor Jon had on earlier.

The two of them jumped into the window and vanished. They were in some kind of strange space that was all white. There were two motorcycles in front of them that were in an odd capsule shape with a glass window in the front. Tucker sat down in the chair of one of the motorcycles.

_All right, _Danny thought as he sat down in the other one and strapped a belt across his chest. Danny and Tucker traveled through the white space for a while and then reached an exit. They exited the white space and came out in an empty street.

_So this is Mirror World, _Danny thought as he got out of the motorcycle. He saw a monster in front of him that looked like a humanoid cat with brown fur and long claws on its hands.

Danny rushed towards the monster as he engaged in his first battle of the rider war.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's notes: I'm taking a few liberties that will make this kind of different from Kamen Rider Ryuki.

First off, not every monster I use is going to be imported directly from Ryuki/Dragon Knight. Also Phanotm Knight will have an extra card that Ryuki/Dragon Knight didn't have. I did this because Ryuki/Dragon Knight was pretty weak compared to some of the other riders. Lastly, about half of the riders are going to be female.

* * *

Phanotm Knight punched the cat monster but it didn't seem to have any effect. The monster swiped its claw at Phantom Knight, causing sparks to come from his armor. Phanotm Knight stood his ground and punched the monster again and it seemed to hurt it. The monster countered by slapping Phantom Knight across the face, sending him rolling to the ground.

_This could be going so much better, _Danny thought as he saw the cat monster run towards Spear. Spear pulled a card out of his deck, raised his right leg, put the card in the object on his knee and lowered his leg.

**Spin Vent**, a mechanical voice called out. An object came from the sky and landed on Spear's right hand. It was a weapon of some kind: there was a black base with two long, golden points that looked like horns.

Spear thrust the weapon forward, striking the monster and causing it obvious pain. Spear thrust the weapon again but the cat thing dodged to the side and hit Spear with its right claw. Spear pushed the sides of the horns against the monster, sending it back a bit, then hit it with the horns again.

_So that's what the cards do, _Danny thought. He figured the ghost-faced gauntlet on his left arm was what used the cards. He pulled out a card from his deck, pulled back the back half of the gauntlet, placed in the card in the new opening and pulled the gauntlet back to its original position.

**Clear Vent**

Phanotm Knight looked at his arms and saw them disappear. _I'm invisible, _Phanotm Knight thought. _Sweet. _

Phanotm Knight ran up to the monster and punched it in the head. The monster swiped at the direction the punch had came from but only struck air. Phanotm Knight had quickly moved to the side, deciding that the best way to capitalize on the invisibility was to not be in the same place for very long. He then kicked the cat thing in the back, causing it to stumble forward a bit.

Spear thrust his weapon forward, striking the monster. Phantom Knight followed through by kicking the monster in the stomach, causing it to stumble since it wasn't expecting an attack immediately after Spear's. Spear thrust his weapon again and landed a powerful hit. Phantom Knight moved to the monster's right side and punched it in the head again, sending it to the ground.

"Good job, Danny," Spear said to Phantom Knight as he reappeared, the effect of his Clear Vent card wearing off. "Now let's finish him off."

**Final Vent **

_Looks like someone else had the same idea, _Tucker thought, knowing what that sound meant. "Get back," he said as he grabbed Phantom Knight and pulled him back from the cat thing. An object that looked like a giant, black drill bit came dropping down on the cat monster, killing it and making it explode.

"Why did thing explode?" Phantom Knight asked.

"I'm not really sure," Spear answered. "That's just what they do when they're killed."

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"Dude, very little about this makes sense: just roll with it."

The flames from the explosion cleared and Phantom Knight saw what he figured was another rider. This one was wearing black armor with a visor shaped like bat wings on the helmet. This new rider had a long, black cape and was wielding a black, triangular lance.

A yellow orb of energy appeared above the new rider. The rider's cape detached and transformed into a giant vampire bat. The bat flew up and swallowed the energy orb then flew off.

"Thanks for softening up Darkwing's meal for me," the rider said with what Phantom Knight recognized as a female voice.

"Uh," Phantom Knight said, not sure what to say.

"You bitch," Spear said. "That was going to be Danny's first kill."

"I thought his name was Jon," the female rider said.

"Jon's dead," Phantom Knight said. "I'm the new Phantom Knight. And you are?"

"Kamen Rider Wing Knight," she said, identifying herself.

"I need to talk to you about the war," Phantom Knight said.

"Don't tell me you want to stop the war too," Wing Knight said in frustration.

"Of course," Phantom Knight said indignantly. "Are you really okay with having to kill the other riders to win?"

"Yes, because I am going to use the wish to save the world."

"From what?"

"Global warming, species going extinct, destruction of the rainforests: that sort of thing."

"And that's worth people dying," Phantom Knight began angrily, "both riders and bystanders who get eaten by monsters?"

"Yes," Wing Knight answered calmly. "And since I have to go through you two anyway, I might as well do it right now."

Wing Knight charged towards Phantom Knight and Spear with her lance's tip raised. Spear charged as well and knocked the lance away with his weapon. Wing Knight quickly spun around and hit Spear with the edge of the lance's shaft. Phantom Knight pulled out another card and placed it in his reader.

**Guard Vent**

A shield of green energy formed around Danny's reader. It was round, curved, roughly one and half feet in diameter. _Not entirely sure what I can do with this, _Phantom Knight thought, _but I'll give it a shot._

Phantom Knight placed the shield in front of him and charged, planning to use the shield as a battering ram. He collided with Wing Knight, causing her to stumble back. She raised her lance and swung it to strike Danny's right side but he raised his left arm to block. Wing Knight kicked Danny's left leg, making him lose his balance. She followed through with two quick side swipes of her lance.

Spear charged Wing Knight again, preparing to strike with his weapon but Wing Knight blocked the attack by placing her lance in between the two horns. She followed through by pushing Spear back with her lance and swinging it. Spear blocked the attack with his weapon, but doing so caused it to disintegrate.

_Oh crap, _Spear thought.

Phantom Knight ran towards Wing Knight and hit her with his shield again, causing her to stumble back. Wing Knight righted herself and swung her lance towards Phantom Knight's left side. Phantom Knight successfully blocked with his shield and then used his free arm to punch Wing Knight in the chest. She quickly spun around and was planning to strike Phantom Knight's right side with her lance. Phantom Knight positioned himself to block with the shield on his left arm. The bat rider's lance only hit the energy shield and disintegrated from the damage it had taken from prolonged use.

Wing Knight quickly went for the rapier on her belt and struck Phantom Knight with it. She followed through with another strike and went for another one but Phantom Knight blocked it with his shield. The shield then disintegrated like Spear and Wing Knight's weapons had done earlier.

Spear took out a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Advent**

The two knights heard a roar and stopped fighting. They looked towards where the roar came from and saw four humanoid monsters heading towards them. One had a mostly black body with some purple parts, two straight horns that went upwards from his head and two short, curved blades coming from his wrists. Two were gold and green with two curved horns beside their heads. The last one was purple, bulkier than the others with two curved horns that went upward and was wielding a staff with two curved horns on the end that were about two feet long.

_Tucker has four monsters, _Danny thought, figuring that Tucker had called them to battle. _That is so not fair. _

"You're not only one who call in reinforcements," Wing Knight said as she took a card and placed it in her rapier's reader.

**Trick Vent**

Five images of Wing Knight came from her and materialized around her. The duplicates went to fight Spear's monsters. One of the gold and green monsters jumped over one of the duplicates, went up to the real Wing Knight and punched her.

"Thanks," Phantom Knight said to the creature, who reciprocated by kicking Danny and sending him to the floor. The real Wing Knight charged the creature and struck it with her rapier.

While they fought, Spear snuck up on Wing Knight and struck her with his knee. The green/gold monster then punched Spear. Wing Knight took advantage of the situation and struck both of them with her rapier.

The monsters fought Wing Knight's duplicate's. The remaining green/gold monster nimbly leapt over a Wing Knight and kicked her in the shoulder before landing. It did the same again as Wing Knight charged him. The bulky purple one was fighting two Wing Knights. It tried to strike one of them with it's staff, but missed and they struck it with their swords. It then hit a Wing Knight with the points on it's staff, causing the duplicate to dematerialize.

The remaining creature was struck by a Wing Knight's sword then quickly counterattacked with one of it's wrist blades. Another Wing Knight swung her sword at it but it blocked with it's right wrist blade and swiftly hit her in the chest with the left one. The first Wing Knight hit the gazelle monster with her sword and it struck with both it's wrist blades, causing it to disappear.

Phantom Knight stood up and pulled out a card from his deck. It was of a green energy sphere with the words 'STRIKE' and 'VENT' above and below it. _I have no idea what this will do, but I hope it's something good, _Danny thought as he put the card in his reader.

**Strike Vent**

A green energy sphere appeared in Danny's right hand. Instinctively, he knew what to do with it. He moved his right arm forward and a beam of the same color shot out. The beam hit the real Wing Knight, sending her to the floor and causing sparks to come from her armor.

_God damn it, that sucked, _Wing Knight thought. _Time for a tactical withdraw. _She took a card from her deck and placed it in her sword's reader.

**Nasty Vent**

The large vampire bat from earlier came back and flew above the group. It emitted a shrieking scream that caused Phantom Knight, Spear and Spear's monsters (who had defeated the rest of Wing Knight's duplicates) to clutch their heads in pain.

Wing Knight was unaffected by her monster's sonic attack and made her escape. She got back to her own motorcycle (which was parked a way's away) and drove into a mirror. She entered the white space in between worlds and drove for a while. When she reached her destination, she got off and exited the white space.

She emerged in the real world through a mirror in a shabby apartment. She removed her deck from her belt buckle. A black energy ring removed her armor. In Wing Knight's place now stood a young woman wearing black boots, a black skirt and a small black tank top with black hair tied into a short ponytail.

"I can't believe Phantom Knight," Sam Manson said out loud. "He's probably read too many comic books and has a naïve sense of morality where saving people is always the right thing to do. No matter: I'll deal with him and the other riders in due time."


	3. Chapter 3

Danny and Tucker exited Mirror World and decided that they needed a private place to talk over what was left. They made their way to Tucker's house and went to his room.

"First thing," Danny said. "How do you have more than one monster and why did one of them attack me?"

"Sorry about that," Tucker said. "I actually only have one monster: Gigazelle," Tucker said as he took out his advent deck, removed a card from it and handed it to Danny. Danny looked at the card and saw that is was the black monster from earlier.

"Far as I can tell," Tucker continued as he took the card back, "Gazelle monsters travel in herds and they recognize Gigazelle as an alpha. They'll follow him into battle but they're not entirely loyal to me: or my allies apparently. Now there are a few things I didn't get to tell you earlier."

"Like what?" Danny asked.

"I know how to stop the Rider war," Tucker said. "Inside that parking garage where Jon was killed, there's a giant prism that is responsible for maintaining Mirror World. Jon found out about the prism and we planned to destroy it, which would cause Mirror World to collapse. No Mirror World, no war: simple as that."

"What went wrong?" Danny asked.

"Jon and I were going to destroy the prism when we were attacked," Tucker began.

…..

_(Begin flashback)_

_Phantom Knight and Spear were on their motorcycles and entered the Mirror World version of the parking garage. The prism was on the top level of the seven-story garage. They were ascending the building and had made it to the third level when their motorcycles suddenly stopped. They looked behind them and saw a giant spider had shot strings of thread to the back of their motorcycles and was holding them back._

_Spear got out of his motorcycle and placed a card in the reader on his knee. _

_**Spin Vent**_

_Spear's weapon flung towards him and landed on his right arm. He used it to sever the thread that was holding back Phantom Knight's motorcycle. "Go Jon," Spear cried out. "I'll deal with him."_

_Phantom Knight continued going up the building while Spear charged the spider creature. The spider lunged its right front leg at Spear, who blocked it with his weapon. The spider struck again with its left front leg and this one hit Spear. The spider then went in to bite Spear, but he positioned his weapon so the spider bit that instead. This loosened Spear's grip on it and he stepped back while his weapon was destroyed._

_Spear pulled out a card from his Advent Deck and placed it in his reader._

_**Advent**_

_Gigazelle popped up out of the floor in front of Spear several more zelles came from behind him. There were three Megazelles (green and gold with curved horns beside their heads) and two Omegazelles (bulky purple with staff weapons)._

_The spider creature hit Gigazelle with its right front leg and the black zelle struck back with one of its wrist blades then moved to the creature's left side. The other five zelles charged the spider and it sprayed thread all over one of the Megazelles. The spider dragged the entrapped Megazelle towards its mouth and bit down, killing it. The spider creature then devoured the dead zelle._

_The spider hit one of the other Megazelles with its right front leg. The two Omegazelles struck the spider with their staffs while the other remaining Megazelle jumped on top of its head while Gigazelle struck the creature's left side with its wrist blades. The spider kept striking with its legs and bought itself some breathing room. _

_Spear looked at his reinforcements fight the giant spider then turned to look at his motorcycle and noticed that the thread holding it was no longer connected to the spider. Spear got back in his motorcycle, drove forward and had it face the spider. He charged the spider and hit its face with the motorcycle. The creature was stunned and the zelles took advantage of the situation and started striking it._

"_Time to move in for the kill," Spear said as he pulled out a card and placed it in his reader. _

_**Final Vent**_

_Gigazelle cried out and many Megazelles and Omegazelles appeared in front of the creature. The new zelles started hopping towards the spider and struck it while moving past it. Spear then charged the spider and struck it with his knee, causing it to explode. An orange sphere of energy appeared above where the monster used to be. Gigazelle leapt into the air and consumed the energy sphere. _

_Spear heard a scream nearby and looked at the gap between the indoor roads. He saw someone who he instinctively knew to be Jon fall towards the ground. Jon hit the ground with a sickening thud. A golden flash appeared next to Jon but Spear couldn't see who it was. This new person lifted Jon up and threw him out a window. _

"_Aw shit," Spear cursed as he contemplated his situation. "Maybe I can take out the prism before…..," he said out loud as he went back to his motorcycle and saw a golden flash before him. When the flash faded, Spear saw someone he recognized._

"_Kamen Rider Wrath," Spear said out loud, identifying the rider in front of him. _

_Wrath said nothing as he pointed at Spear's motorcycle. He then motioned for Spear to take his motorcycle and go down to the parking garage's exit. _

"_Fine," Spear said in defeated tone, knowing that he couldn't win this fight, at least not after he used up all his cards against the spider monster._

I should check on Jon anyway, _he thought to himself as he got on his motorcycle and went drove away from Wrath. _

_(End Flashback)_

…_.._

"After that, I left Mirror World and looked for where Jon landed, where I ran into you," Tucker finished.

"Why did Kamen Rider Wrath kill Jon and scare you off?" Danny asked with barely contained anger.

"Wrath isn't like the other riders," Tucker explained. "He's like a referee for the Rider war. And the other riders are pretty much fighting each other for the chance to fight him and that decides the war."

"You said he's like a referee: what rules does he enforce?"

"There are really only two rules to the war: keep the fighting inside Mirror World and don't stop the war."

"Now there's something you should really see," Tucker said as he went to grab something. He handed Danny what looked like a paper scroll.

Danny opened the scroll and saw that it was a list of all the Kamen Riders and what they were called. He paid close attention to the names: Wrath, Axe, Thrust, Camo Raia, Siren, Incisor, Zolda, Ouja, Spear, Wing Knight and two entries for Phantom Knight.

Next to the topmost Phantom Knight entry was a picture of Jon and some text. _Jon Umbras was killed by Kamen Rider Wrath, _the text began, _for attempting to bring the Rider War to a premature end. In a fascinating twist, his Advent Deck was not destroyed in the process and a new Kamen Rider Phantom Knight has entered the war._

Danny then closely looked at the Phantom Knight entry below Jon's and knew that it was for him.

"I know the identities of two of these other riders," Tucker said. "Kamen Rider Thrust is someone we both know: Dash Baxter."

"No way," Danny said, surprised that the school bully who had tormented him for what felt like a nightmarish eternity was also a part of the rider war.

"Yeah," Tucker said. "This is a big problem. What if Dash wins the war and gets to have a wish granted?"

"He'd use it to take his sadism to the next level," Danny said, his eyes widening in shock. He made the conscious effort to not imagine the details of how horrible that would be.

"Exactly," Tucker said. "We have to keep that from happening. So before we try to destroy the prism to make Mirror World collapse, we should eliminate Dash."

"When you say eliminate, do you mean kill?" Danny asked. "I hate Dash too for all the times he's beaten me up, shoved me into lockers and generally treated me like crap as his hobby, but killing him seems excessive."

"It may not be up to us Danny," Tucker said. "The way you beat another rider is the same way you kill a monster: with this," he said as he took a card out of his deck and showed it to the Danny. The card had the words 'FINAL' and 'VENT' on the top and bottom, respectively, and had the same symbol as Tucker's advent deck in the center. Danny looked through his own Advent Deck and pulled out the same card, but with the Phantom Knight symbol in the center instead.

"This is the finishing attack," Tucker continued. "You have to soften the enemy first and this finishes them off. When its used on a rider, their armor is destroyed and they are severely injured. There is something about Mirror World that causes people to disintegrate if they don't have a Kamen Rider's armor."

"So the defeated rider has no armor and can't exit Mirror World before disintegrating," Danny finished, placing his hands on his temples in frustration. "Couldn't we defeat Dash and then get him out of Mirror World before he disintegrates?"

"Yeah," Tucker answered, pausing to consider his next words carefully.

"Are you actually considering killing Dash?" Danny asked.

"Oh, like you've never considered it," Tucker shot back.

"Of course I have," Danny admitted. "But those thoughts were filed away with things like 'what I'd do if I had a million dollars': I thought about those things knowing that they'd never happen. Now I agree that eliminating Dash is the right thing to do, but be honest with me: are we going to do this for noble reasons is it just about revenge?"

_It's about 50/50, _Tucker thought. Tucker quickly realized two things: A) he would need Danny's help to have the best shot at eliminating Dash and B) feigning altruism would be the best way to keep Danny on his side.

"This has nothing to do with revenge," Tucker lied. "We'll beat Dash without killing him."

"Great," Danny said. "You said there was another rider whose identity you knew. Which one's that?"

"Can we save that for later, Danny?" Tucker asked. "I've had a pretty taxing last few hours."

"Sure," Danny answered and left. When he was gone, Tucker thought over what his life had become.

When he first found out about the war, he was ecstatic about the possibility of getting a wish of his come true as well as getting (what were essentially) superpowers and fighting other people with similar superpowers.

His enjoyment didn't last long. He fought a couple other riders and was disturbed with how enthusiastic they were about the death match aspect of the war. To make matters worse, Tucker found out that his abilities as Spear were rather limited compared to what the other Kamen Riders could do. The only reason he was able to survive his encounters with the other riders was because he called in Gigazelle and whatever other zelles he brought along and escaped while his opponents were busy dealing with the reinforcements.

He thought about pulling out of the war, but the force or person responsible for setting up the war talked him out of it. He found a note similar to how he found the Spear Advent Deck in the first place that explained to him how if he didn't fight to provide energy for his contract monster, then Gigazelle would devour him as his next meal.

After a while, Tucker met Jon. Jon wanted to stop the war due to the immorality of it all. Tucker was very concerned with that, but he did think that ensuring Jon stopped the war was just the way out he was hoping for. And then Jon died for his lofty ideals.

Tucker wasn't sure how he felt about Danny's role as his new ally. On one hand, he had tried to talk Danny out of joining the war so Danny's decision to do so wasn't his fault. But that didn't keep Tucker from feeling bad about how Danny was now in the same boat that had gotten Jon killed.

Danny exited Tucker's house and climbed on top of his motorcycle. He remembered how ecstatic he'd been cruising around town on it earlier. That had only been about two hours ago but to him, it felt like another lifetime.

He had no regrets about his decision to stand against the severe f#*ked uppedness of the Rider War. He was glad that he had a like minded ally in Tucker.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Tucker and Danny had donned their armors and met up on a building rooftop in Mirror World.

"All right Danny," Spear said, "this sparring match will get you more familiar with your abilities."

"I'll start with one card I haven't used yet," Phantom Knight said as he pulled a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Sword Vent **

An object fell from the sky, headed towards Phantom Knight and he caught it. It was a medieval broadsword with a straight blade that was a few feet long.

"Cool," he said as he admired the new weapon.

"Heads up," Spear said as he pulled card out and placed it in the reader on his knee.

**Advent**

Five monsters came out of the floor in front of Spear: Gigazelle, two Megazelles and two Omegazelles. The five monsters charged Phantom Knight.

"What the crap, Tucker?" Phantom Knight said as he readied himself.

"Not every fight is going to be one on one," Spear said.

One of the Omegazelles lunged its staff at Phantom Knight, but he knocked it away with his sword and then struck the purple zelle. One of the Megazelles leapt into the air and punched Phantom Knight in chest, pushing him back a few feet.

Gigazelle charged Phantom Knight from his left side and did a running slash on him. Phantom Knight retaliated with a swing of his sword, but was cut of by a Megazelle hitting him with a leaping kick. While he was disoriented from that strike, an Omegazelle hit Phantom Knight around the waist, hurled him up and over and several feet away, landing on his chest and rolling a bit.

"So ….. much pain," Phantom Knight said through labored breaths. He got back to his feet and saw the five zelles lined up in front of him like they were earlier.

Danny knew that going against the nature of the Rider War was not going to be easy. He would have to fight monsters, the other riders who weren't interested in stopping the war and most of all, Kamen Rider Wrath: Jon's executioner and the enforcer for the war. He decided that he was going to grit his teeth and fight though any obstacles that presented themselves, starting with the five monsters in front of him.

_And I've just the thing in mind, _Danny thought as he pulled out a card and placed it in his reader.

**Clear Vent **

Phantom Knight turned invisible and he approached the zelles from the right part of the group. He quickly went through the group, striking each one on the way with his sword. After hitting each zelle once, both Megazelles decided to flee the battle and leapt away. Phantom Knight began his second pass and attacked Gigazelle. While he was busy with that, one of the Omegazelles struck the area in front of Gigazelle with it's staff and hit Phantom Knight.

Gigazelle, now with a better idea of where his opponent was, attempted to strike Phantom Knight but had not luck. Phantom Knight quickly struck Gigazelle, then the Omegazelle who had hit him and then ran towards the remaining Omegazelle with a running slash. The three remaining zelles decided to retreat because of the injuries they'd taken. Once they were gone, Phantom Knight became visible.

**Spin Vent **

Phantom Knight heard that and looked towards where it came from. He saw Kamen Rider Spear running towards him as his horned weapon flew onto his arm. Before Phantom Knight had time to react, Spear struck him with the weapon in his chest. Phantom Knight fell to the ground, unable to stand up right away due to all the injuries he had taken.

While he was on the ground, Phantom Knight took a card from his deck and quickly placed it in his reader.

**Strike Vent **

A sphere of green energy appeared in Phantom Knight's right hand and used it to shoot an energy ray at Spear. The ray hit Spear in his chest, causing sparks to come out of his armor and making him stagger in pain.

"Great counter attack Danny," Spear said.

"What the hell was that about Tucker?" Phantom Knight asked angrily.

"Proving a point, Danny," Tucker began. "When we try to talk the other riders into joining us, they may claim they agree with us to get us to lower our guard. So don't trust anyone right away: except me of course. Now get back up: Let's see how well you can fight when you're at less than %100."

Danny didn't want to get back up, but he knew it was necessary: the more about fighting he learned with Tucker now, the less he'd have to learn in a real battle with someone who wanted him dead.

They spared with each other for a while before deciding to stop. By then, it was around lunch time so they exited Mirror World and headed to the Nasty Burger for some head.

They had almost finished their lunch when they heard the chiming sound that meant monster activity was about to take place soon.

"Aw crap," Tucker said, deciding to interpret the warning as a sign to scarf down what was left of his food as quickly as possible. Danny shared Tucker's mindset and followed suit. Once they had made sure that they hadn't wasted money on uneaten fast food, they could focus on the more important matter.

They looked out the window of the Nasty Burger and saw what set off the internal alarm. It was three red humanoids with some kind of cross-like objects on their backs. They were joined by two more and it looked like they might be waiting for even more.

"Those are called Gelnewts," Tucker said to Danny. "They're kind of like my zelle monsters: not very tough but they travel in groups. And it looks like they're getting some friends together for their idea of the lunch rush."

Danny and Tucker went to the restroom and were fortunate enough for there to be no one else there. They stood in front of the restroom mirror and held out their advent decks. Silver belts appeared in the mirror and attached themselves around their wastes.

"Phantom Knight," Danny cried out.

"Spear," Tucker did the same and both boys slid they're decks into the belts' buckles. A ring of black energy appeared around Danny and brown one around Tucker. The rings split, traveled vertically across both of them and they were now wearing their armors. They jumped into the mirror and exited in the mirror world version of the Nasty Burger. They were now in front of the fast food joint, facing a dozen Gelnewts.

"I know how to even these odds," Spear said as he took out a card from his deck placed it in the reader on his knee.

**Advent**

Gigazelle popped out of the floor in front of Tucker along with three Megazelles.

_I hate how Gigazelle never has a consistent entourage, _Tucker thought, lamenting how his contract monster hadn't brought any Omegazelles with him.

The zelles charged into battle. Each Megazelle leapt over a Gelnewt while striking it. Other Gelnewts tried to strike the Megazelles, but they were able to use their agility to evade the counterattack. Gigazelle hit a Gelnewt with its wrist blades but was struck by another one. Each zelle kept two Gelnewts busy. Spear was able to do the same while unarmed.

Two Gelnewts stood across from Phantom Knight and took out the cross-like objects from their backs. As they readied to throw them, Danny took a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Guard Vent**

The green energy shield appeared as the Gelnewts threw their projectiles. Phantom Knight raised the shield and blocked the attacks. The crosses fell next to him and the Gelnewts charged Phantom Knight. He raised his shield and rammed into one, sending it to the ground. The other one punched Phantom Knight in the chest and tried to punch him again but Phantom Knight blocked in time.

Phantom Knight smashed his shield into the red monster. He got behind the Gelnewt and kicked it in its but as it's comrade got back up and ran towards them. The one Danny kicked tumbled into the other and they both fell. Danny took a card from his deck and slid the back half of the ghost on his gauntlet forward, which made his shield disappear.

_I'll have to remember that, _Danny thoughtnoting that going to use a new card costs him his Guard Vent.

**Final Vent **

Phantom Knight jumped into the air and Phantomas appeared behind him. Phantomas hit Phantom Knight with a large amount of green energy, which propelled Phantom Knight forward while covering his right leg in the energy. He descended towards the downed Gelnewts with his right foot stretched out. He collided with the Gelnewts, making them explode.

Phantom Knight stood among the flames from the explosions. Two orange orbs appeared above him. Phantomas came down and absorbed both orbs.

_Not bad, _Danny thought, pleased with how well he had handled himself against the two monsters and getting Phantomas some energy.

He decided to look around and saw five new Gelnewts heading towards him. He wasn't worried: after defeating the first two, he liked his odds. He pulled out a card from his deck and put it in his reader.

**Sword Vent**

The sword came from the sky and Phantom Knight caught. He readied himself to take on the new enemies when a mirror shooter rode up in between Phantom Knight and the Gelnewts.

A Kamen Rider Danny hadn't seen before stepped out. This one was in white armor with what looked like a thin, white cape in two parts. There was a design similar to a pair of wings over the face and the chest. A symbol of a pair of wings was on the rider's Advent Deck. Danny remembered the scroll Tucker had shown him earlier and knew that this person was Kamen Rider Siren.

What struck Danny as unusual was that this rider had heeled shoes, which led Danny to believe this rider was female. She took out a sword with a thin, round shaft that was on her side and slid the base forward. She took a card from her deck, placed it above the handle of her sword and slid the base back.

**Sword Vent**

Siren placed her sword's shaft inside her belt as a new weapon came to her from the sky. It was a golden staff with two curved blades on each end. She began fighting the five Gelnewts.

_She looks like she's got this, _Danny thought, deciding to use this new development to see if Tucker needed any help.


	5. Chapter 5

Since the battle began, the three Megazelles Spear had called on had retreated and four more Gelnewts had joined the battle against him and Gigazelle. Spear had brought out his horned weapon and was fighting off four Gelnewts while Gigazelle was battling six.

Phantom Knight had decided to help Gigazelle first and ran towards it. He took a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Clear Vent**

Phantom turned invisible as he joined the fray. He slashed one Gelnewt with his sword and then quickly slashed another, catching the red monsters completely by surprise. He then slashed the Gelnewts directly in front of Gigazelle and the gazelle creature pressed the advantage by striking with its wrist blades. Phantom Knight struck the remaining two Gelnewts right before his clear vent wore off. As that happened, the two Gelnewts exploded and produced two orange orbs which Phantomas came by to absorb. Gigazelle finished the other four Gelnewts thanks to Phantom Knight's help and absorbed the energy orbs they produced.

Kamen Rider Spear was doing a good job of holding off the four Gelnewts he was fighting but they had gotten some hits in. _I need something to turn things around, _Tucker thought. Just then, a mirror shooter came and hit one of the red creatures, sending it flying for several feet before exploding. _That'll do nicely, _Tucker thought. The defeated Gelnewt produced an energy sphere, which was absorbed by what looked like a giant, pink, flying manta ray.

A rider stepped out of the mirror shooter. This one was wearing a black body suit with pink armor on top. The chest piece was vaguely like a manta ray's body, as was the small shield on the rider's left arm. The face plate was silver with several slits over it and a thin, pony tail-like object coming from the back of the head. This rider's advent deck had a symbol of a manta ray on it.

"Kamen Rider Raia," Spear said out loud, recognizing the newcomer from the scroll he had.

"Hi," Raia greeted and Spear could tell that this rider was female. As he was processing this information, one of the Gelnewts leapt into the air and was planning to strike with it's cross weapon. Raia quickly took a card from her advent deck, slid her shield forward, placed the card in the opening that was now there and slid the shield back into place.

**Copy Vent **

An image of Spear's weapon appeared over the real thing, flew to Raia's right arm materialized. She jumped to intercept her attacker as it descended and struck with the duplicated horned weapon. The Gelnewt fell to the ground and exploded, the energy orb it produced quickly absorbed by the giant ray creature (which Spear deduced was Raia's partner).

Spear struck one of the remaining Gelnewts with his weapon. Raia struck the same Gelnewt with her copy. She pushed it forward and Spear struck again at the same time. The combined attack caused the Gelnewt to explode and once again, it left behind an orange energy sphere that was absorbed by Raia's contract monster.

"Thanks for the help," Spear said.

"Thank you for helping me get food for Evildiver," Raia said, identifying the large manta ray. Raia looked around and saw the last Gelnewt making a run for it. "I've got this," she said as she removed the copy of Spear's weapon and placed a card in her reader.

**Final Vent**

Raia jumped into the air and Evildiver placed itself underneath her. Raia landed on her partner and they both flew after the fleeing Gelnewt. Evildiver flew very quickly as Raia stood atop it like a surfboard and they both collided into the last red creature. It exploded and Evildiver absorbed a fourth energy sphere.

While all this was going on, Kamen Rider Siren was fighting five Gelnewts. She was having an easy time of it: the range she had with her bladed staff allowed her to strike the Gelnewts while staying out of their attack range. She quickly moved from target to target and sometimes struck more than one Gelnewt with a swing of her staff.

The Gelnewts realized that they were outmatched and attempted to retreat. Siren let them run away as she took a card from her advent deck and placed in the reader that was in her sword, currently on her waist.

**Final Vent**

A large, white swan appeared in front of the retreating Gelnewts. It flapped its wings and stopped the red creatures in their tracks. The swan flapped its wings even harder and sent the Gelnewts flying towards Siren. Siren struck the monsters with her staff as they flew towards her, making them explode with one strike each. Five orange sphere's appeared around Siren. Her contract monster flew over to her and absorbed them.

"Great work Blancwing," Siren said, complementing her partner as she stroked its neck. "You should run off now: momma has other business to take care of." Siren turned around walked towards the other Kamen riders as Blancwing flew off.

"Thanks for the help," Phantom Knight said as he and Spear joined her.

"You can save the thanks and tell me who you really are," Siren said as she pointed one of the blades of her staff at them.

"Whoa, chill out," Spear said. "There's no reason for us to fight here."

"You have no idea how right you are," Siren replied as she lowered her weapon. "Since you're both male, neither of you is the one I'm looking for." She then looked past them and saw Kamen Rider Raia behind the two males, waiting to attack if it became necessary. "Feel free to join the conversation at anytime, Raia."

Phantom Knight and Spear looked to where Siren was talking at saw the pink rider. Raia walked up to the group and stood next to Siren.

"I take it we're not fighting these guys," Raia half-asked.

"That's right," Siren answered. "Neither of them is Spectra, so we'll have to keep looking."

"Wait a second," Spear said. "Are you talking about Penelope Spectra, that psycho psychiatrist who made three of her patients kill themselves with post-hypnotic suggestion? That's who you're looking for?"

"Yes," Siren answered. "She recently escaped from prison and the cops have no idea how she escaped. Far as they can tell, she just vanished into thin air."

"Or into a mirror," Phantom Knight finished her train of thought.

"Exactly," Siren continued. "I think Spectra was selected for the rider war and escaped through Mirror World."

"That's very interesting and scary," Spear said, "but why are you after her?"

"For the most noble cause in the world: revenge," Siren answered enthusiastically.

_In other words, Spectra killed someone you cared about, _Danny and Tucker both thought, deciding to keep that to themselves.

"That's great, but there's something else I need to talk to you about," Phantom Knight said. "It's about stopping the war."

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" Siren asked indignantly. "The rider war is my best shot at finding Spectra and killing her."

"And if these two are going to cost you that," Raia began, "Maybe we should take them out of the equasation."

"No," Siren responded flatly. "These two couldn't even handle a dozen Gelnewts before we showed up. It's going to be a long time before they have a serious chance of stopping the war. During that time, they might run into Spectra and deal with her for me."

"You're cool with someone else killing Spectra instead of you?" Phantom Knight asked. This struck him as very odd: in all the stories he was familiar with that involved people wanting revenge, they usually weren't so open minded about not getting to do it personally.

"I don't care who does the deed as long as the end result is Spectra getting what's coming to her," Siren answered. "Let's go," she said to Raia as they both began walking away.

"Wait," Spear said. "You might be interested to know that we're all kind of in the same boat. Phantom Knight and I have issues with Kamen Rider Thrust. If you and Raia help us with him, we'll help you with Spectra."

"Fat chance," Raia said then turned to Siren. "We don't need these dorks."

"Agreed," Siren said and the female riders left.

"Before you go," Spear called out to them, "you may want to know that I've encountered two female riders whose identities are unknown to me. Spectra could be either Incisor or Wing Knight."

"Noted," Siren called back to him.

…..

Danny and Tucker went to Tucker's room to talk about their morning.

"I get the impression that you're upset with me," Tucker said to Danny, who had been glaring angrily at him for a while.

"Why did you tell Siren that we wanted revenge on Dash?" Danny asked, still glaring. "I thought going after him wasn't about revenge."

"It's not about revenge," Tucker said. _As far as you know, _he mentally added. "We are going after Dash because if he wins the war and gets to have a wish granted, it will be very bad. And Dash hasn't even killed anyone."

_That we know of, _Tucker thought. "If Siren is right about Penelope Spectra being a part of the rider war and she does win, then it will be catastrophic."

"So you felt that we were obligated to help Siren get her revenge," Danny said, understanding where Tucker was coming from.

"Like it matters anyway," Tucker said in a dejected tone. "Siren doesn't want our help and even if she did, she doesn't definitively know if Spectra is a Kamen Rider. Anyway, there is one thing left we need to go over."

"The other rider whose identity you know," Danny guessed.

"Bingo," Tucker confirmed then pulled out the magic scroll that listed all the Kamen Riders. He pointed to a picture of one. "This is Kamen Rider Zolda: real name, Valerie Grey. Or should I say, officer Valerie Grey of the Amity Park police department."

…

Author's notes: you're probably wondering why I'm using an adult version of Valerie. It's a holdover from the original idea I had for this story. That idea was essentially the plot of Dragon Knight with Danny as Kit, Sam as Len and Plasmius as general Xaviax. In that story, Valerie was a disgruntled police officer Plasmius conned into fighting Danny and Sam by making her think she was working for a covert anti-alien government agency.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's notes: I'm going to interrupt the conversation between Danny and Tucker for a Sam-centric chapter. I was having trouble figuring out where to place this chapter, so I'm going to use it to break up a pair of exposition-heavy chapters.

Kamen Rider Wing Knight was in an old warehouse fighting a humanoid polar bear monster. The creature was seven feet tall, had a muscular chest with white fur over its arms, legs and head.

Wing Knight struck the creature twice with her sword. It didn't do much damage. The bear monster attempted to slash her with its paw shaped hand, but the attack was slow and Wing Knight able to dodge in time. The monster countered by breathing a freezing, white mist on to Wing Knight that hurt her and made sparks come from her armor. The monster connected a slash with Wing Knight that sent her flying to its left. When Wing Knight landed and got back on her feet, she saw another Kamen Rider in front of her.

"Who the hell are you?" Wing Knight asked.

"Kamen Rider Axe," the tiger-themed rider identified himself with a somewhat gruff sounding voice. "AKA, your worst nightmare."

Kamen Rider Axe charged Wing Knight and tried to strike her with his axe but Wing Knight parried with her sword. Axe struck Wing Knight with his weapon just as he was struck with her's. Wing Knight stumbled back because the force of the blow combined with her previous injuries hurt her significantly.

"You're in over your head girly," Axe taunted. "This is man's business."

As Axe was about to deliver another blow to Wing Knight, the polar bear monster she was fighting earlier came between the two Kamen Riders and backhanded Axe with one of its paws and sent him flying back more than a dozen feet.

_Thanks for hitting that sexist asshole instead of me, _Sam thought. She took a card from her advent deck and placed it in the reader on her sword.

**Guard Vent**

Darkwing flew unto Wing Knight's back and it's body turned into a cape. She struck the polar bear monster with her sword two more times. It countered by launching another freezing mist attack but she blocked with her cape, protecting her.

"Perfect," Axe said as he got on his feet and saw the two enemies fighting each other. He took a card from his advent deck, pulled down on part of the handle of his axe that revealed a card slot on the top of the weapon, put the card in the slot and slid the axe into place.

**Final Vent**

He put his axe on his back as two gauntlets as long as a forearms ending in curved claws came from above and equipped themselves on Axe's arms. At the same time, his contract monster, Destwilder, appeared. It was humanoid with a tiger shaped head, a body the same color as Axe's body and arms exactly like the gauntlets Axe now had.

Destwilder charged towards Wing Knight and the polar bear creature. It collided with Wing Knight and began dragging her across the floor towards Axe, who had raised a gauntleted arm in preparation for the killing blow.

Wing Knight did a high kick with her right leg as she was being dragged in an attempt to free herself. She did two more and Destwilder lost its grip as it continued running.

_So that's what it feels like to have your monster battle interrupted by another rider's Final Vent, _Sam thought, noting that one of her preferred tactics had been used against her. She also noted that this wasn't going to stop her from doing it to others in the future.

Wing Knight got to her feet as Destwilder turned around to her, pissed off at the bat-themed rider for evading the combination attack. The tiger creature charged Wing Knight and swiped its claw, but Wing Knight blocked with her cape. She then countered by striking with her sword.

Axe saw his contract beast fighting Wing Knight and decided to go after the polar bear monster. He charged the creature and struck with one of his clawed gauntlets. He then quickly moved to the creature's side, taking advantage of its lack of speed.

Wing Knight blocked another strike from Destwilder, which made Darkwing leave her back and fly off. She then took a card from her deck and placed it in her reader.

**Trick Vent**

Seven images of Wing Knight appeared around her and Destwilder. The new Wing Knights began attacking the tiger creature with their swords. Each individual attack didn't do much damage but their combined toll started hurting Destwilder. It started swiping its claws and hit one of the Wing Knight duplicates, causing it to disappear. It did this again and again. The real Wing Knight joined the fight and got in a few hits while the duplicates distracted Destwilder.

Meanwhile, the polar bear creature unleashed its freezing breath attack on Kamen Rider Axe but he blocked by raising one of his gauntlets. The monster struck at the weapon, causing it to disintegrate. In a flash of rage, Axe struck the monster's head with his remaining gauntlet. This turned out to be a mistake, because the monster countered by biting down on the weapon, locking it into place so it could strike with its claw and destroy Axe's other gauntlet. Axe put some distance between him and the creature, knowing he needed to come up with a new plan of attack.

Destwilder had eliminated all of the Wing Knight duplicates but their attacks had weakened him greatly. Wing Knight saw this and realized that she could seriously reduce the threat posed to her from Axe. She then took a card from her deck and placed it in her reader.

**Final Vent**

Darkwing flew towards Wing Knight and gave and her lance weapon flew to her. Axe heard the cry from Wing Knight's use of her Final Vent card and knew that Destwilder was in trouble. He pulled his axe down and placed a card in the slot.

**Freeze Vent **

Darkwing was about to cling to Wing Knight's back again but was stopped by being frozen in its tracks.

With that taken care of, Axe thought of a way to defeat the polar bear monster. He ran towards the creature and jumped towards a nearby wall, jumped off that and headed towards is target. The polar bear creature tried to stop Axe with its freezing breath attack. The tiger-themed rider was hurt from the attack but it didn't stop his momentum or resolve. Axe pulled his weapon back over his head and swung it when he was within striking distance, hitting the polar bear monster's head. Sparks came from its head as slowly fell back and exploded, producing an orange energy sphere that floated upwards.

Sensing that a meal was ready for it, Destwilder ran over to the energy orb and absorbed it. It then ran from the warehouse, its injuries severe enough that it didn't want to continue fighting.

"And now to deal with you," Axe said as he pulled his axe down and placed a card in the slot.

**Strike Vent**

Axe stored his weapon on his back and was now equipped with a pair of gauntlets that were identical to the ones he had earlier.

_Oh crap, _Sam thought. She wasn't very interested in continuing this fight sense she was far from 100%. _But Darkwing is still frozen and retreating right now would mean leaving her at the hands of this bastard, _Sam thought (she liked to think of Darkwing as female even though she had no basis for this).

Wing Knight stood her ground as Axe charged her. She struck Axe with her lance and Axe countered by hitting her with one of his gauntlets. Axe followed up with another swipe of his claws that sent Wing Knight to the ground. Wing Knight lost her lance and was being barraged by clawed strikes from Axe. She grabbed her sword and struck Axe in his torso, which gave her an opening to get out from under him.

Wing Knight rolled away on the floor to get some distance between her and Axe. When she stopped rolling, she heard a cry from Darkwing. _Good, _Sam thought when she learned that Darkwing had thawed. She pulled a card from her deck and placed it in the reader on her sword.

**Advent**

Darkwing flew towards Axe and hit him as she flew past. She did another flying strike as Wing Knight got to her feet and ran towards a nearby window.

Wing Knight had entered the white space between worlds and saw a Mirror Shooter in front of her. She got on it and rode it for a while before getting off and returning to her apartment in the real world.

Wing Knight took out her advent deck and a black ring of energy removed her armor. Sam walked over to a chair and practically collapsed into it, her injuries catching up to her.

"Maybe I should go to the hospital," Sam out loud then quickly dismissed the idea. "Nah: I'd have to come up with some kind of story for how I got injured. Plus, I'm probably not covered by my parents' insurance anymore."

Sam Manson came from a wealthy family, but she had always hated how controlling they were about her lifestyle. After graduating high school a few weeks ago, she had decided to move out of her parents' house and live on her own.

She was able to get a couple thousand dollars out of the bank before burning bridges and got a very modest, pre-furnished apartment. She'd also gotten a job as a nightclub bouncer, so money was taken care of for now.

"Thank god I don't have to work tonight," Sam said. "After the fight I just had, I'm in no condition to bounce with anyone tonight. I can't believe I got my ass kicked like that with nothing to show for it."

Darkwing came into the apartment and walked awkwardly on its small feet towards Sam. The large bat went next Sam's legs and nuzzled against her legs. Sam enjoyed this and patted Darkwing's head as she waited for the soreness from her injuries to fade.


	7. Chapter 7

"But that doesn't make any sense," Danny angrily said in regards to learning that Kamen Rider Zolda was a police officer. "If she's a cop, how can she be okay with the death match nature of the rider war?"

"I don't know Danny," Tucker answered then bowed his head in depression. "I just don't know."

"I missed something, didn't I?" Danny asked, not understanding Tucker's sadness.

"I met Valerie once, before the war started," Tucker began as he picked his head up. "I was at the mall one day and saw a guy point out a kid who'd swiped some DVDs from his store. Valerie was on duty nearby and tackled the thief to the ground."

"I walked up to her and said how awesome her takedown was," he continued. "We talked for a while as she walked the thief to mall security's holding area. She explained how she was actually a real cop but was reassigned to mall duty until she had successfully completed an anger management course she'd been ordered to take after a few excessive force complaints."

"Fast forward to three days ago," Tucker continued. "The rider war had started, you and I hadn't met yet and I was still working with Jon. I'd learned over the Internet about two people going missing from this one hotel downtown. I decided to check it out on the hunch that the disappearances were Mirror World related."

(Begin flashback)

_Tucker was walking toward the hotel where the disappearances had occurred, thinking about how he would enter the Mirror World version of the hotel and check it for monsters. He had decided that he wouldn't enter the hotel directly because for all he knew, there'd be a den of monsters waiting for him on the other side. Luckily, it had rained the previous night so as soon as he got some privacy, he could enter Mirror World through a nearby puddle. _

_He entered an alley next to the hotel and saw someone he recognized as Valerie Grey. She was an African-American woman in her mid-twenties with a very short, military style haircut and was wearing a police officer's uniform. Without noticing Tucker's presence, she took out a rectangular object Tucker knew had to be a green advent deck and held it in front of a puddle on the ground. A silver belt appeared in the puddle and attached itself around her waste._

"_Zolda," Valerie cried out as she slid her deck into the slot on her belt. A green ring of energy appeared around her waist, split in two and traveled across her body. Valerie was now wearing a green body suit with green armor on the chest and shoulders, silver bars and what looked like a pair of antennae on the helmet and what looked like a green submachine-gun pistol on her hip. Zolda jumped into the puddle and went into Mirror World. _

_Tucker stood still as he processed this new information. After a while, he walked up to the puddle and held out his advent deck. A silver belt appeared in the puddle and attached itself to his waist. _

"_Spear," Tucker cried out as he put his deck into the belt buckle and a brown ring of energy appeared around his waist, split into two and traveled across his body. With his armor now on, Spear jumped into the puddle and entered Mirror World. He exited the alley and walked went into the hotel lobby. He saw Zolda in the lobby but unfortunately for him, Zolda heard him enter. _

_Kamen Rider Zolda turned around and opened fire on Spear, her blaster sending out quick traveling green pellets of energy. Spear was hit by three pellets that made sparks emit from his armor._

"_Thought you could get the drop on me, uh," Zolda said angrily. "Fat chance, asshole." She pulled back the top part of her blaster back and a slot lowered from where the clip would go if it were a normal gun. Zolda took a card from her deck, placed it in the slot and it went back into the blaster. _

_**Launch Vent**_

_Two green, metal squares with small cannons on them came from above and attached themselves to Zolda's shoulders. _

"_Oh shit," Spear said as he began running to his left to make himself a moving target. _

_Before Zolda could attack, she was struck from behind twice. She turned to where the attacks came from and spotted a monster. It was humanoid with thick, gray stripes on its arms and legs but what Zolda found most striking about it were its large ears and three red eyes. It was holding some kind of gun that it had used to attack her. _

_Zolda turned around and fired two blasts from her shoulder cannons but the red-eyed creature leapt over six feet in the air and evaded the shots. When it landed, it fired two shots with its gun that hit Zolda's cannons, causing them to disintegrate. _

Maybe if I help her with this, she'll be more interested in listening to me, _Tucker thought. He took a card from his deck and placed it in the reader on his knee. _

_**Advent **_

_Gigazelle entered the area with an Omegazelle and two Megazelles. The Omegazelle lunged its staff but the gun-totting monster leapt over the weapon and then leapt off of Omegazelle's back. One of the Megazelles leapt into air and the second one leapt off the first and struck the red-eyed creature. It landed ungracefully on the floor and got back on its feet in time to be hit by Gigazelle's wrist blades._

_Zolda pulled back the top part of her blaster, took a card from her deck and placed it in the slot, which went back into the blaster._

_**Shoot Vent**_

_A weapon came from and Zolda caught it. It was a bazooka with a thin shaft that was over twice as long as Zolda was tall. Due to the weapon's ridiculous size, Zolda could only lift it as high as her waist_

_The red-eyed creature jumped into the air and somehow clinged to a nearby wall. Once in place, it took its gun and started shooting the zelles. _

_Zolda raised her bazooka to aim at the gun-totting monster and fired. The red-eyed creature saw the attack coming and jumped away from his perch. However, the shell impacted the spot where it was and the resulting explosion caused him to land on its stomach when it hit the ground instead of the graceful landing it had planned for._

_Zolda pointed her bazooka at the downed enemy and fired another shell. A fiery explosion appeared where the creature once stood and when the flames subsided, an orange sphere of energy floated upwards. Zolda's contract monster appeared out of the floor nearby to claim the spoils of its rider's victory._

_Zolda's contract monster seemed to be a robotic green minotaur. Its right arm looked exactly like Zolda's bazooka and its left arm ended in what might have been a gatling gun of some kind. It had a broad chest that seemed to be covered with thick armor and two small golden horns on its head. It looked at the energy sphere, seemed to suck it towards itself like a vacuum and absorbed it. With that out of the way, Zolda took her bazooka and pointed it at Spear._

"_As much as I appreciate your help in with getting Magnugiga's meal," she began, "I haven't decided to not blow you up yet and you have three seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't."_

"_I don't mean you any harm," Spear said quickly. "I want to talk to you about stopping the rider war."_

"_Not interested," Zolda responded flatly. "Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind about letting you go."_

_Spear decided to take this opportunity and left with much haste, not knowing that the Zelles he had summoned had already left after Magnugiga took the energy_

_(_End flashback)

"Why didn't you tell Valerie that you knew who she was?" Danny asked.

"Cause she was holding a big frickin' gun that may have been pointed at my dick," Tucker explained. "I was worried that if I told her I knew who she was, she would decide that I was a threat that needed to be dealt with immediately and pulled the trigger."

"That is a very good reason," Danny said in comprehending fear. "But what if we confront her about the war in the real world, when she's away from her big frickin', dick aiming guns and try again to talk her into joining us? If she did that, we could get rid of Dash with leaving very little up to chance."

"I don't think that's a great idea, Danny," Tucker said. "She seemed very… strong in her wanting the war to continue. And before you say 'we still need to try', keep in mind that she may be a crooked cop if she thinks participating in the war is more important that her civic to stop something of its massive f#&ked-uppedness. In that case, she may go after us in the real world."

Danny stood with eyes wide opened in fear as he considered that possibility.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tucker said. "And as for her helping us with us Dash: even if we could talk her into joining us and she refrains from blowing us up long enough for that to happen, we have no reason to think she'll help us deal with him."

"Are you saying that because of how the teachers at school always cover for him?" Danny asked. "That's because his performance on the football field makes the school look good so they give him preferential treatment. Valeria does not benefit from his athleticism, so why would she not want to eliminate him from the war?"

"Well for one thing, she might follow high school sports and be a fan of his. Aside from that," Tucker briefly had a pained expression on his face and then took a deep breath as he prepared to continue. "I once tried to convince John to help me eliminate Dash from the war out of fear that if he won, he'd take his sadism to new levels and he refused to."

"Why?" Danny asked with a hint of anger in his voice. He felt betrayed that his predecessor – the man whose goal to stop the rider war Danny had taken it upon himself to finish despite the immense danger to himself – had apparently sided with the bully who had tried to make his time at Casper High for the last two years a living hell because he thought it was funny.

"He said I only wanted payback on Dash and was exaggerating the things Dash did to me in an attempt to get his help," Tucker explained. "He also mentioned something about how as an adult, he shouldn't encourage me to deal with people I don't like by resorting to violence but I think it was mostly because he didn't believe me."

"Well I do believe you because of all the things Dash has done to me," Danny said, his feeling of betrayal going away a bit after hearing John's understandable reasons.

"I appreciate that, Danny," Tucker said. "Now as for Valerie, between the teachers giving Dash an environment where his actions didn't have consequences and John not wanting to help me save the world from him, we have little reason to think she will feel differently."

Danny was pretty sure that Tucker felt the way he did because of trust issues from having Valerie attack him so quickly but he didn't think it was appropriate to bring that up.

"Besides Danny," Tucker continued, "Don't you see the poetic justice in us saving people from the kind of fates Dash has inflicted on us?"

"I do," Danny said as he considered what their next course of action should be. "We'll get Dash out of the competition then talk more about what to do with Valerie."


	8. Chapter 8

Two days later, Danny and Tucker had done some more training and a little monster fighting without major incidents. They decided it was now time to fight Dash. They sent a letter to his house addressed to him challenging him to a rider battle at the Casper High football field: Danny and Tucker both felt that defeating Dash on the piece of ground where displays of athletic prowess got him the preferential treatment he used to act on his sadistic urges was very fitting. They were waiting by the football field when they saw Dash walk up to them.

"What the hell are you two nerds doing here?" Dash asked angrily.

"We're the ones who sent the letter, dumbass," Tucker said and then held out his advent deck as proof.

"You two are Kamen Riders," Dash said and then started laughing hysterically. "This is gonna be easier than I thought. So I take it that now that you two think you have some degree of power, you want to use it to get payback on me."

"This isn't about payback Dash," Danny said.

_Speak for yourself, Danny, _Tucker thought.

"This is about disaster prevention," Danny continued. "I don't know what you want to use the wish for but if it's anything like what you've done with the freedom the teachers have given you, then you're going to make hundreds, maybe even thousands of people suffer so you can get a cheap laugh from it."

"What's your point Fenturd?" Dash asked condescendingly.

Danny's eyes widened in disgust at Dash's casual admittance of sadistic intentions. He couldn't think of anything to say so instead, he walked about a dozen feet towards the school's main building and stood in front of a window. He took out his advent deck and held it in front of the window. The silver belt appeared and attached itself to his waist.

"Phantom Knight," Danny cried angrily as he slid his deck into the belt buckle and was now wearing his rider armor. He jumped through the window and waited for Tucker and Dash to join him in mirror world. They went up to the same window, held out their decks and the silver belts went around their waists.

"Spear," Tucker cried out as he slid his deck into the belt buckle. As usual, the brown ring energy around Tucker and equipped his armor.

"Thrust," Dash cried out as he slid his deck into the belt buckle. The ring of energy for his transformation was silver. It split apart and traveled vertically across his body.

Thrust had a large metal chest plate over his torso and a small horn on his helmet that looked like one from rhino. There was what looked like some kind of hatch on his right shoulder along with a large red horn that curved outwards.

Spear and Thrust entered mirror world where Phantom Knight was standing several feet away from him. Spear ran over to him so he could start the fight next to his ally.

"So you two already have so much going against you," Thrust began insultingly, "I'll let you guys make the first move."

"Good," Phantom Knight said as he took a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Sword Vent**

Phantom Knight's sword came from the sky and he caught it. He ran towards Thrust as the rhino rider took a card from his deck, opened the hatch on his right shoulder, placed the card in the slot and closed the hatch.

**Confine Vent**

Phantom Knight attempted to hit Thrust with his sword but the weapon disappeared mid-swing. Phantom Knight stood dumbfounded at his failed attack as Thrust punched him in the face and sent him back several feet.

_Damn it, _Danny thought. _That could have gone better._

**Spin Vent **

Thrust turned to see where the sound came from and saw Spear running towards him as Spear's horned weapon attached itself to his arm. He struck with his weapon, which had the additional force from his momentum but the attack didn't seem that effective.

_That worked so much better against Danny,_ Tucker thought. Thrust tried to punch Spear but Spear got of the way in time. He bashed Thrust with the sides of his weapon but that didn't work either. Thrust countered by punching Spear twice in the torso.

Phantom Knight got back to his feet and charged towards Thrust. He aimed a punch backed by his momentum at Thrust's head but the attack missed and hit Thrust's chest plate. All that attack did was make Phantom Knight's hand feel like he just punched a brick wall.

_Ouch, ouch, ouch, _Danny thought. To make matters worse, due to his mind currently only able to process the pain from his hand he forgot about he was currently in the middle of a battle and Thrust punched him in the head and sent him flying back again.

_Let's see how Dash handles some reinforcements, _Tucker thought as pulled a card from his deck and placed it in the reader on his knee. While he normally felt confident about his zelles ability to even the odds when he called for their help, this felt more like a desperation tactic with how poorly the fight with Dash was going.

**Advent**

Gigazelle appeared out the ground along with three Megazelles. _Damn, _Tucker thought. _I was really hoping that he'd bring some Omegazelles with him._

Gigazelle slashed at Thrust with his wrist blades, but the rhino rider's thick armor made the attack ineffective. Thrust put a card in the slot on his shoulder.

**Strike Vent**

An object came from the sky and attached itself on top of Thrust's right hand. It was a gauntlet in the shape of rhino's head. Thrust struck Gigazelle with his gauntlet while two of the Megazelles struck while leaping over him. Their attacks did practically no damage against Thrust's armor.

Phantom Knight got back on his feet and saw Thrust surrounded by Zelles. He came up with an idea to add to Thrust's troubles. He placed a card in his reader.

**Clear Vent**

Phantom Knight turned invisible and ran towards Thrust. He leapt up and kicked Thrust, sending the heavily armored rider back a few steps. Unfortunately, a Megazelle was doing a leaping strike against Thrust at the time and collided with the ghostly rider and started lashing out, trying to hit the unseen obstruction.

Thrust saw the zelle hit something that wasn't there and do it again while flailing wildly. With deductive reasoning that would have surprised his teachers, he figured out that one of his enemies was invisible and used his gauntlet to strike the area he thought it was in. His attacked connected and some sparks came from Phantom Knight's armor as his invisibility faded.

Thrust was about to strike his now visible foe but was struck from behind by Spear. That was followed by a strike from Gigazelle and another from one of the Megazelles. Thrust put a card in the slot on his shoulder.

**Advent**

About twenty feet away from the fighting, a humanoid rhino monster that seemed to be covered in metal plates appeared out of the ground. This was Thrust's partner, Metalgias. It started charging to go help its rider when Phantom Knight got an idea on how to deal with it. He ran a bit from Thrust and Spear, took a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Strike Vent**

A green sphere of energy appeared in Phantom Knight's hand. He held it out and sent an energy ray that hit Metalgias and made a large amount of sparks came from its body. Metalgias stopped and looked at Phantom Knight.

"All right, I got him angry," Phantom Knight in celebration of his plan working. His joyous mode came to an end as Metalgias started charging towards him. "Oh crap, I got him angry."

Phantom Knight dived out of the way of Metalgias's charge and took a card from his deck. "Tucker and Dash aren't the only ones who can call in reinforcements," he said as he placed the card in his reader.

**Advent**

Metalgias was about to charge again when Phantomas appeared to its right and tackled it. Metalgias tried to headbut the ghostly creature, but it vanished and reappeared behind Metalgias to deliver another tackle. Phantomas then disappeared again and reappeared ten feet in front of Metalgias and then shot a thin ray of green energy at the rhino creature that did not do much damage.

_So Phantomas does not have a lot of raw power, though he does appear skilled in the art of the surprise attack, _Danny thought. He then rushed to help his partner fight Metalgias.

Kamen Rider Thrust was very pissed off. It was bad enough that these dweeps were standing up to him and using cheap tricks like swarm tactics, but the worst part was that it was working. Their attacks didn't do much damage individually but stacked up, it was starting to wear him down. He was attacked from behind by Gigazelle as Spear hit him from the front with his horned weapon. Thrust countered by hitting him with his gauntlet and then put a card in the slot on his shoulder.

**Final Vent**

Metalgias stopped bothering with Phantom Knight and Phantomas and ran towards its rider. Thrust jumped into the air and landed his feet on Metalgias's shoulders as the rhino creature ran up to him. Metalgias began running quickly towards Spear as Thrust held his gauntlet out.

Thrust collided with Spear, causing him to fly back while massive amounts of sparks came from his armor. When he landed, his advent deck cracked and then shattered, making his armor disappear. Tucker's body began to disintegrate from exposure to mirror world as he began to bemoan his fate.

_God damn it, _Tucker thought as he tried to stand up but was too injured to do so. _I suppose it serves me right for joining a death match in the hopes of becoming fabulously wealthy and then trying to back out when I got in over my head. But the worst part is now Danny's still in the war and he's all by himself. _

Phantom Knight looked at his ally and knew that he wouldn't be able to get past Thrust and help Tucker in time. Thrust looked at Tucker fading away and began laughing.

Faced with this helplessness, he just quietly seethed in the greatest rage he had ever felt.

"You evil, sadistic mother f#^ker," Phantom Knight cried out as he took a card from his deck and placed it in his reader.

**Final Vent**

Phantom Knight leapt over twenty feet into the air and Phantomas appeared behind him at the height of his jump. Phantomas unleashed a large blast of green energy at Phantom Knight that propelled him towards Kamen Rider Thrust with his right foot extended and covered in the same green energy. Thrust turned to face Phantom Knight just as the ghostly rider's attack was about to connect.

Phantom Knight's supercharged kick hit Thrust's chestplate, sending him to the ground as sparks came from his armor. Just like with Spear earlier, Thrust's advent deck cracked then shattered, dispersing his armor. Phantom Knight looked over to where Tucker was and saw his friend smile at him and give him a thumbs up in gratitude of his defeat being avenged right before he faded out of existence.

Dash groaned as he slowly got back on his feet and turned to face the nearest reflective portal out of Mirror World. He began to walk towards it but was too injured to make it through before disintegrating like his victim.

"Fenton," Dash said to Phantom Knight. "You have to help me."

"Help you?" Phantom Knight asked incredulously. "You mean like how you didn't help Tucker? I don't think so. And you know what's funny: I would have helped you if you'd asked five minutes ago but after seeing how funny you found Tucker's death, I'm not going to do that."

Dash was furious over his impending death. Choosing to not go quietly, he threw a punch at Phantom Knight that the ghostly rider barely felt through his armor. Dash was further enraged over his inability to exert his physical superiority over Fenton like he used to.

He looked Phantom Knight in the face and spat on his helmet before disintegrating into nothingness.


End file.
